I BLEW MY CHANCE !!
- page 3

I had a last minute interview today and everything was going well, untill the last question.
"Would I be be confident enought to handle 49 residents by myself". and my dumb response was; I am... Read More

Feb 14, '13

I understand your frustration and desperation but trust me when I tell you that you are better off NOT working that job and still having your license to get another job with than to have gotten that job then lost your license because of it. The first piece of advise I would give to any new nurse is to ALWAYS protect your license over ANY specific job.

I have had to make that very clear to the place I am currently working at. They expect far to much in far to limited a time frame and continually "blamed" me. "Time management" issues my arse!

Do not think for one second ANY of these places are going to protect you when they are being sued. You are not a person to them, you are just a "dime a dozen" piece of property easily replaced if it serves them to let you take the fall for them.

When I finally had enough and told the DON flat out that enough is enough the problem is not my time management issues it is broken system issue. I am NOT going to do what other nurses do to make it LOOK like they are doing everything expected in the measly 8 hours they expect it in.I flat out told her, I would rather loose a job protecting my license than loose my license trying to protect a job. I fully expected to be fired that day and didn't care. I would have left with my very hard earned license intact.

Feb 14, '13

It's been my experience that doing meds and treatments for 49 reisdents is normal for LTC. It's doable. But if you're truly the *only* nurse, ie no unit supervisor to handle admits and/or hospitalizations, it's a nightmare. If I had to be the "med nurse" AND the "charge nurse" for 49 residents, I'd quit.

Feb 14, '13

I understand and thank you for the words of wisdom. I will definitely stay on that track.

Feb 14, '13

Bigmaine33, Have you had time to stop by social services to see if they can help with housing, food stamps, commodities, etc. until you're back on your feet? If you need some guidance on that, feel free to PM me.

Feb 21, '13

I had a job interview back when I was first starting out where I went in to interview one person, then another, then got in to talk to another, and so on. Every person I talked to asked me how I felt about conflict in the work place. I had been a CNA so I knew all about personality clashes in healthcare so I kept giving decent enough answers about how to navigate conflict situations.

But then I started getting really frustrated, because I was thinking "why do they keep asking me this?" And I kept trying to give articulate responses, but I was getting tired -- it was a really long interview and was starting to feel like an interrogation -- and finally the last person in the chain asked me again "how comfortable do you feel with conflict" and I just blurted out "I'm not comfortable with conflict AT ALL."

Well. I didn't get the job, but by that point I didn't want it.

Forty nine patients per nurse is an absolutely insane ratio and you are better off not being in that facility. There's a lot to be said for knowing your own limitations and being able to advocate for your own best interests.

Apr 21, '13

Consider yourself lucky. Any job where they would actually expect you to TRY to handle 49 residents by yourself is not one you want to have.